Description
It has been a long held assumption that conservative lawmakers as well as American industrial interests support the empowerment of state regulatory institutions as opposed to their federal regulatory counterparts. This study examines the evolution of regulatory responsibilities assigned to the federal Environmental Protection Agency with special emphasis on those responsibilities assigned by the Clean Air Act. Not only does this study observe the widening of responsibilities assigned to the agency, beginning with the Reagan Administration and going forward through the presidential administration of Barack Obama, it also charts the evolution EPA-state relationships throughout this time period. This study challenges the assumption mentioned above by analyzing recent events where conservative lawmakers as well as industrial interests favored centralizing regulatory influence towards the Environmental Protection Agency. Also examined in general terms are the situations in which industrial interests would favor regulatory centralization, and how they would benefit.
